1 00:00:13,42 --> 00:00:16,93 Elizabeth Becker is an award winning author and journalist who has covered national 2 00:00:16,94 --> 00:00:18,46 and international affairs as 3 00:00:18,47 --> 00:00:22,46 a Washington correspondent at The New York Times All right senior foreign editor at 4 00:00:22,47 --> 00:00:23,22 N.P.R. And 5 00:00:23,23 --> 00:00:27,03 a Washington Post correspondent she has won awards for the Robert Kennedy book 6 00:00:27,04 --> 00:00:30,70 awards Overseas Press Club and Dupont Columbia and was part of the New York Times 7 00:00:30,71 --> 00:00:33,52 staff that won the two thousand and two pilots or for public service 8 00:00:34,16 --> 00:00:38,09 a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the board of directors of Oxfam 9 00:00:38,10 --> 00:00:41,75 and the Arthur Burns foundation she also was an abject professor at Georgetown 10 00:00:41,76 --> 00:00:45,41 University and the two thousand and eight Edelman fellow at Harvard's John Shore 11 00:00:45,45 --> 00:00:50,90 Shorenstein Center for the press. Press Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy 12 00:00:50,91 --> 00:00:54,38 School of Government is using her essays and opinion pieces appear frequently in 13 00:00:54,39 --> 00:00:58,05 the New York Times The Washington Post and The International Herald Tribune and 14 00:00:58,06 --> 00:01:02,26 she's contributed to Asian European and American magazines and journals and she's 15 00:01:02,27 --> 00:01:03,36 a hometown girl and she holds 16 00:01:03,37 --> 00:01:05,81 a degree in South Asian studies from the You and I here is 17 00:01:05,82 --> 00:01:12,32 a graduate of West Seattle highs All right. She is the author of When the war was 18 00:01:12,33 --> 00:01:14,74 over from one thousand nine hundred six for which she won the Robert F. 19 00:01:14,75 --> 00:01:18,62 Kennedy book citation and America's Vietnam War from one hundred ninety two and her 20 00:01:18,63 --> 00:01:23,60 new book is overbooked The Exploding Business of travel and tourism and the subject 21 00:01:23,61 --> 00:01:26,84 of tonight's talk so please offer your warmest Seattle welcome for Elizabeth Becker 22 00:01:26,84 --> 00:01:26,84 . 23 00:01:32,33 --> 00:01:39,21 Thanks I blurted just in the few weeks that I've been 24 00:01:39,76 --> 00:01:45,07 talking about my book that I have to say first of all I'm not going to try to talk 25 00:01:45,08 --> 00:01:51,92 you out of traveling. Travel sensibly travel 26 00:01:51,93 --> 00:01:56,42 thoughtfully but yes I'm I'm not going to be that horrible scolding says you know 27 00:01:56,43 --> 00:02:01,56 you know you have to stay home. You heard from the introduction that I've been 28 00:02:01,85 --> 00:02:07,71 concerned about international affairs for several decades before and I have to 29 00:02:07,72 --> 00:02:13,31 admit until I started working on this book I had never even thought about it was 30 00:02:13,49 --> 00:02:17,51 something I did when I wasn't being serious and I think most of you are the same 31 00:02:17,52 --> 00:02:21,29 way you know you have serious work you do serious things and then you take 32 00:02:21,30 --> 00:02:28,23 a trip and. Something happened in the last decade that made me change 33 00:02:28,24 --> 00:02:34,80 my mind my last was. International Economics at the at the New York Times which is 34 00:02:34,81 --> 00:02:40,64 when I became interested in economic development in the developing world trade that 35 00:02:40,65 --> 00:02:45,78 sort of stuff and I kept bumping into tourism poor countries we're going to use 36 00:02:45,78 --> 00:02:52,49 tourism to get wealthy in rich countries for years using tourism to stay wealthy 37 00:02:52,91 --> 00:02:57,78 and there is no place to put it in the paper and so the result is this book I 38 00:02:57,79 --> 00:03:04,01 Borgen eyes that. According to why we travel culture consumer 39 00:03:04,47 --> 00:03:10,61 nature and then the importance of travel in terms of the world with the Giants the 40 00:03:10,62 --> 00:03:17,45 United States and China so Sunday at the Louvre Museum in 41 00:03:17,46 --> 00:03:24,09 Paris this is the epitome of tourism France was the first country who got it 42 00:03:25,35 --> 00:03:29,81 and it's the first country that I profile and in the book they just got it they 43 00:03:29,82 --> 00:03:36,64 were. English started visiting France in the nineteenth century and they fear to 44 00:03:36,65 --> 00:03:42,75 how we're going to milk these people. These strange English who want to spend all 45 00:03:42,76 --> 00:03:49,42 this time along the blustery Normandy coast and they figured out. The 46 00:03:49,43 --> 00:03:56,42 first country to give their people paid vacations Leon Blum 47 00:03:56,46 --> 00:04:00,58 the socialist prime minister between the wars in the one nine hundred thirty S. 48 00:04:01,33 --> 00:04:04,84 They were the first country to organize. 49 00:04:06,98 --> 00:04:13,83 Transportation culture all those sort of things around tourism and. They were 50 00:04:13,84 --> 00:04:17,71 doing quite well until the Second World War sort of flattened out their economies 51 00:04:18,00 --> 00:04:21,08 so when the United States came around and said we have 52 00:04:21,09 --> 00:04:24,44 a Marshall Plan What do you want us to do with it they said let's revive the 53 00:04:24,45 --> 00:04:30,75 tourism industry so our American aid as it would do later in other countries helped 54 00:04:30,76 --> 00:04:37,62 revive tourism in Paris and this is 55 00:04:38,38 --> 00:04:44,84 this is as if you're in one of Claude Monet his paintings in this is me and the key 56 00:04:45,11 --> 00:04:50,48 to French tourism and why it is now the number one tourist destination in the world 57 00:04:50,89 --> 00:04:56,56 is because they figured out the best way to attract people is to stay French 58 00:04:58,62 --> 00:05:00,79 So all that all that you use 59 00:05:00,80 --> 00:05:05,25 a filter is there so arrogant they cling to everything that's so French Well that's 60 00:05:05,26 --> 00:05:10,05 exactly why everybody wants to go there it's not homogenized like everybody else so 61 00:05:11,00 --> 00:05:17,86 you have. A country that's smaller than Texas that is the number 62 00:05:17,87 --> 00:05:23,44 one draw consistently and is so popular that for instance to you two or three year 63 00:05:23,73 --> 00:05:29,79 or two years ago more Chinese visited Paris than visit all of the United States so 64 00:05:29,79 --> 00:05:35,78 . That's what happens when you know what you're doing. And Bordeaux is very 65 00:05:35,79 --> 00:05:41,04 interesting to me because it reminds me of Seattle. See how beautiful it is 66 00:05:41,08 --> 00:05:47,36 a few years ago it sort of looked like. You know the waterfront in Seattle where. 67 00:05:50,19 --> 00:05:54,19 Where you have the Alaskan Way Viaduct and you can't tell which way is going what. 68 00:05:55,81 --> 00:06:02,34 Ten years ago incredibly talented politician named Alice you pay became the mayor 69 00:06:03,18 --> 00:06:05,91 and he's in the French system he's also 70 00:06:06,21 --> 00:06:11,65 a national figure and has had his ups and downs like most national politicians 71 00:06:11,66 --> 00:06:17,67 around the world but he needs to act under Sarkozy he was the minister of defense 72 00:06:17,68 --> 00:06:23,24 and minister of foreign affairs but he's. Devoted to his hometown Bordeaux and as 73 00:06:23,25 --> 00:06:29,32 the mare he did what you are about to do he tore down the mess along the river he 74 00:06:29,33 --> 00:06:36,07 cleaned up all the buildings he put in electric light rail. He 75 00:06:36,69 --> 00:06:41,46 he made pedestrian areas he did everything that the people of Bordeaux wanted to 76 00:06:41,47 --> 00:06:47,10 have happen so that their city became the gem it was in the late eighteenth early 77 00:06:47,11 --> 00:06:52,30 nineteenth century and it's now it's you know it's it's the capital of the Bordeaux 78 00:06:52,34 --> 00:06:56,93 in years and when I lived I had the pleasure of living in Paris for four years and 79 00:06:57,60 --> 00:07:01,97 you would never go to Bordeaux for vacation never it was if you stayed away from it 80 00:07:01,98 --> 00:07:07,26 you went to the vineyards and had some wine and famously the American Robert Parker 81 00:07:07,27 --> 00:07:13,59 who who gives all the greats to wine he refused to ever stay there until this 82 00:07:13,60 --> 00:07:20,54 happened and he wrote after the renovation he gave the city of Bordeaux his 83 00:07:20,55 --> 00:07:24,85 personal rating I remember the old days in the rotten abandoned buildings on the 84 00:07:24,86 --> 00:07:26,45 waterfront and now it is 85 00:07:26,46 --> 00:07:32,12 a ravishing destination and for Robert Parker That's high praise So this is what 86 00:07:32,13 --> 00:07:38,05 might happen to you if. If if I'm on the East Coast I always bring up the Boston 87 00:07:38,14 --> 00:07:45,01 Big Dig So I had to. And now this is where tourism got 88 00:07:45,02 --> 00:07:52,01 away with it so it went away this is called being loved to death. I think 89 00:07:52,02 --> 00:07:55,60 these are trying to use tourists but there Venice is now 90 00:07:55,61 --> 00:08:02,27 a town of only sixty thousand people and every year between twenty and twenty four 91 00:08:02,31 --> 00:08:09,27 million tourists visit this town. And amazing and 92 00:08:09,42 --> 00:08:16,29 so you have this is what happens when your love to you have rents 93 00:08:16,30 --> 00:08:22,36 go up so you can't the locals can't afford to stay in their cities so they have to 94 00:08:22,37 --> 00:08:28,86 go to the mainland. You have greedy sometimes corrupt politicians who see all this 95 00:08:28,87 --> 00:08:35,85 money and allow for zoning to be ignored and you have so shopkeepers lose their 96 00:08:35,86 --> 00:08:40,87 shops and you have no more butchers no more bakers and in their place you have 97 00:08:40,97 --> 00:08:46,37 crummy souvenir shops and boutiques that you would find in Paris or Rome or New 98 00:08:46,38 --> 00:08:52,74 York or Seattle so you have the hollowing out of society then you have the 99 00:08:52,97 --> 00:08:57,06 phony souvenirs coming in so that real I'm around 100 00:08:57,07 --> 00:09:02,68 a glass in fact comes from Eastern Europe or China those great mass don't come from 101 00:09:02,69 --> 00:09:08,01 Venice the beautiful paper doesn't come from Venice and so the artists and start to 102 00:09:08,02 --> 00:09:12,90 go away and you have what the Venetians now are afraid is Disneyland 103 00:09:16,27 --> 00:09:20,72 and you have this. Now they're not supposed to originally you weren't supposed to 104 00:09:20,73 --> 00:09:25,86 have these Cruise look at it it looks like King Kong the size of that cruise ship 105 00:09:25,99 --> 00:09:32,67 in the beautiful nation cityscape you know there's no cars allowed in tennis 106 00:09:33,80 --> 00:09:39,26 and there was no pollution until these guys came and now you have what you all must 107 00:09:39,27 --> 00:09:45,38 know is crucial pays pollution. An idling ship using their 108 00:09:45,65 --> 00:09:52,53 fuel is the equivalent of twelve thousand idling cars and 109 00:09:52,84 --> 00:09:57,60 I met with and you'll you'll be introduced to the nations who are trying to get 110 00:09:57,61 --> 00:10:02,82 control of this. And Italy is why hell is one of those government that's when it's 111 00:10:02,83 --> 00:10:09,11 good it's very good and when it's bad it's pretty awful. When when my husband Bill 112 00:10:09,12 --> 00:10:12,35 Nash is here and he traveled with me 113 00:10:12,36 --> 00:10:18,57 a lot and when we were there. You know SCO had an ad in the paper at the 114 00:10:18,79 --> 00:10:24,23 International Herald Tribune warning that instead of worrying about aqua alta 115 00:10:24,43 --> 00:10:30,66 rising water which we're all worried about the the city would be find itself in its 116 00:10:30,67 --> 00:10:33,27 watery grave because of too many tourists. 117 00:10:38,67 --> 00:10:41,46 This is the tourism gone bad 118 00:10:42,10 --> 00:10:46,26 a developing country. As you heard Cambodia was 119 00:10:46,60 --> 00:10:52,71 a country that I've been living in and covering for many years and. After the war 120 00:10:52,72 --> 00:10:56,57 ended and there was finally peace all my Cambodian friend said yes now I can 121 00:10:56,72 --> 00:11:01,45 tourism will bring us back and everybody will know how wonderful we are. Instead 122 00:11:01,46 --> 00:11:05,89 again whenever you see something good or something that is usually the government 123 00:11:05,93 --> 00:11:10,40 behind it in this one it's the government as well it's Cambodia is easily one of 124 00:11:10,41 --> 00:11:17,25 the most beautiful countries this rich culture and. It's allowed flooding of 125 00:11:17,26 --> 00:11:24,07 tourism so and core which is one of the largest collection of religious buildings 126 00:11:24,08 --> 00:11:30,74 and world is being overrun it's the the the 127 00:11:30,75 --> 00:11:36,44 temple temples are not meant for even the kind of prayer that we have in our 128 00:11:37,15 --> 00:11:43,68 Christian churches this was meant for just the elite worship. And now you have 129 00:11:44,42 --> 00:11:47,02 several million every year in 130 00:11:47,03 --> 00:11:51,78 a country that does not have the infrastructure that you would want for tourists so 131 00:11:51,79 --> 00:11:52,67 that you have 132 00:11:52,68 --> 00:11:58,20 a forest of hotels around it and as you know tourists take up much more water than 133 00:11:58,21 --> 00:12:04,62 the locals so it's completely ruined. The sewage the regular water and in fact the 134 00:12:04,78 --> 00:12:10,94 water table is drying out and the temples are sinking and then several cases it's 135 00:12:10,95 --> 00:12:17,78 very bad so this is just not doing well for the cultural heritage then in terms of 136 00:12:18,24 --> 00:12:22,15 how does it help poor people this is an instance where they're not making sure that 137 00:12:22,19 --> 00:12:26,69 the money stays local the French make sure that the money stays local here the 138 00:12:26,70 --> 00:12:31,01 money is either going into the pockets of some corrupt business people or 139 00:12:31,16 --> 00:12:34,100 politicians but it's also going to the International so that this isn't 140 00:12:35,01 --> 00:12:36,05 a province called C.M. 141 00:12:36,06 --> 00:12:43,05 Re up and before the tourism boom it was one of the wealthiest per capita is now it 142 00:12:43,06 --> 00:12:49,85 is the poorest because the money is going in and out. I'll just briefly 143 00:12:49,86 --> 00:12:55,45 touch on some of the other things it's also been really horrible in terms of sex 144 00:12:55,46 --> 00:13:00,92 tourism that was not an issue until tourism boom and now it's very very common for 145 00:13:00,96 --> 00:13:04,29 a family in the cycle of poverty to sell 146 00:13:04,30 --> 00:13:10,68 a daughter and that's one of the most that's the moral blight of 147 00:13:10,89 --> 00:13:16,93 industrialized tourism now that. There's something called genocide tourism now has 148 00:13:16,94 --> 00:13:20,53 anybody ever heard of this you know you can buy you can go to 149 00:13:20,54 --> 00:13:24,64 a travel agent and say I want to do a genocide tour and you will be sold 150 00:13:24,65 --> 00:13:30,77 a ticket to Europe to see the Holocaust sites to Rwanda to Sierra Leone and to 151 00:13:30,78 --> 00:13:35,37 Cambodia I'll just get into it out there and then. 152 00:13:38,31 --> 00:13:43,57 And finally in their push to make more money and to bring more tourists they have 153 00:13:43,61 --> 00:13:47,32 done something that's become all too common in the developing world they've done 154 00:13:47,33 --> 00:13:52,01 land grabs where they throw the the locals out of the land and build resorts and 155 00:13:52,02 --> 00:13:58,28 casinos in this place so all those things that we don't like this is neighboring 156 00:13:58,29 --> 00:14:02,17 Thailand they Thailand didn't get off on the right foot necessarily when they 157 00:14:02,18 --> 00:14:08,69 started tourism but they have their flipping and they're now trying to. Use tourism 158 00:14:08,83 --> 00:14:14,06 that's me learning supposedly how to cook how to reinforce the culture through 159 00:14:14,07 --> 00:14:20,59 tourism so they're accepting stuff like this. They have 160 00:14:20,74 --> 00:14:25,86 made tourism their wealthiest sector even though Thailand is normally the country 161 00:14:25,87 --> 00:14:32,63 that exports the most rice tourism brings them more money than rice. And this is 162 00:14:32,64 --> 00:14:37,61 just an of another example of that anything can be packaged as tourism now which is 163 00:14:37,62 --> 00:14:42,82 one of the reasons that I did this book tourism now accounts for one out of every 164 00:14:42,83 --> 00:14:48,16 eleven jobs in the world one out of eleven there's no other sector like this for 165 00:14:48,17 --> 00:14:54,46 the the global economy it provides six point four trillion that's 166 00:14:54,47 --> 00:15:00,69 a T trillion dollars and. You have. 167 00:15:03,98 --> 00:15:05,38 This is this is 168 00:15:05,39 --> 00:15:10,84 a Seattle sort of industry as well so one of the fastest growing sectors is cruise 169 00:15:11,32 --> 00:15:18,15 because it's like I call it the fast food of tourism. For 170 00:15:18,19 --> 00:15:24,62 all kinds of I think obvious reasons it's distorted why you travel to an easily 171 00:15:24,63 --> 00:15:31,09 packaged trip so all that when you think of travel you think of adventure you think 172 00:15:31,10 --> 00:15:36,09 of going someplace foreign getting to know something new losing yourself in the new 173 00:15:36,75 --> 00:15:43,23 culture new people this you get on the boat you stay in the same bed 174 00:15:44,25 --> 00:15:50,73 you for instance in this trip five days with two excursions of two hours 175 00:15:50,74 --> 00:15:57,60 each of the crew ship had no. Nothing to do with Mexico which is where this 176 00:15:57,61 --> 00:16:02,04 is or Billy's no lectures on the culture there lectures are only how to spend money 177 00:16:02,05 --> 00:16:07,93 once you've got on board literally at diamond shops and. In the. 178 00:16:11,31 --> 00:16:15,96 Art galleries and then most importantly for 179 00:16:16,12 --> 00:16:22,85 a Seattle audience the environmental pollution is unbelievable. Just read 180 00:16:23,32 --> 00:16:26,13 what happens every day when 181 00:16:26,14 --> 00:16:32,20 a cruise ship is out to sea according to the environmental production Protection 182 00:16:32,21 --> 00:16:36,23 Agency in the course of one day the average cruise ship produces twenty one 183 00:16:36,24 --> 00:16:41,33 thousand gallons of human sewage one ton of solid waste garbage under seventy 184 00:16:41,34 --> 00:16:45,68 thousand gallons of waste water from shower sinks and laundry six thousand four 185 00:16:45,69 --> 00:16:50,48 hundred gallons of oil. Build water from the engines twenty five pounds of 186 00:16:50,55 --> 00:16:55,47 batteries and of course eight thousand five hundred plastic bottles once you leave 187 00:16:55,59 --> 00:17:02,48 the sure there's no more environmental rules that you follow and. Cruise ships 188 00:17:02,93 --> 00:17:06,72 companies the two major ones are Carnival and world Caribbean they take up two 189 00:17:06,73 --> 00:17:12,86 thirds of the market they are headquartered in the United States Miami they have 190 00:17:12,87 --> 00:17:19,39 a they all their ships are in American ports. Yet. Because their chips are 191 00:17:19,77 --> 00:17:25,53 ships are flagged and registered overseas they don't pay most corporate taxes and 192 00:17:25,54 --> 00:17:30,35 they don't follow labor or environmental rules so you get what I just described. 193 00:17:32,07 --> 00:17:36,31 And that's the. Chapter that seems to get the most attention 194 00:17:39,67 --> 00:17:45,49 this is the other side and we all know this is in Course study. Which. 195 00:17:46,62 --> 00:17:52,85 Is the sort of one of the great pioneers of eco tourism and this is the flipside of 196 00:17:52,86 --> 00:17:59,05 what I just was describing. Again the government and the national culture and the 197 00:17:59,06 --> 00:18:03,28 national character shows up and how they have tourism go City eco was 198 00:18:03,32 --> 00:18:08,59 a poor country in Central America the Spanish didn't find mineral wealth there and 199 00:18:08,60 --> 00:18:14,11 it's too mountainous and rocky and Junglee to make it an agricultural country so it 200 00:18:14,12 --> 00:18:20,69 was left alone and. As you know it gradually developed 201 00:18:20,71 --> 00:18:26,72 a character where it doesn't have an army. More than half of the country is 202 00:18:26,95 --> 00:18:33,81 protected preserves of course jungles and eventually one of their 203 00:18:34,35 --> 00:18:40,13 leaders won the Nobel Prize for ending the wars of its neighbors that's who they 204 00:18:40,14 --> 00:18:44,89 are and not surprisingly they discovered that the best way to protect who they are 205 00:18:44,90 --> 00:18:45,52 was to make 206 00:18:45,53 --> 00:18:51,59 a tourism that as they put it monetized their wildlife so now it's like 207 00:18:51,60 --> 00:18:57,46 a biosphere of sorts that has more butterflies and bird species than in North 208 00:18:57,47 --> 00:19:04,34 America combined It's astonishing and and tourists paid to keep it keep it 209 00:19:04,35 --> 00:19:09,98 going it's again it's one of the major sectors of Costa Rica and it's and Costa 210 00:19:09,99 --> 00:19:16,93 Rica's result has one of the strongest. Middle classes in the region this is the 211 00:19:16,94 --> 00:19:22,22 size of the boats they allow they don't allow huge mammoth King Kong boats and this 212 00:19:22,23 --> 00:19:29,02 is what you do all day you don't sit around drinking and going to shows you go 213 00:19:29,20 --> 00:19:35,96 out and you see the wildness and Africa. 214 00:19:40,35 --> 00:19:44,64 What surprised me about Africa is that the debate is still going on and whether or 215 00:19:44,65 --> 00:19:46,03 not the wildlife parks is 216 00:19:46,04 --> 00:19:51,53 a proper thing or whether proper African expression of itself or whether it's 217 00:19:52,18 --> 00:19:58,32 a European colonial left over and the countries are finally realizing that this is 218 00:19:58,33 --> 00:20:03,20 their culture and their Their first thing that they were talking about tourism with 219 00:20:03,21 --> 00:20:08,38 me was to get the Africans to go to their own parks and you will be astonished at 220 00:20:08,39 --> 00:20:14,29 the number of Africans who have never seen an elephant where but they are using the 221 00:20:14,30 --> 00:20:21,16 parks to. To. To bring interesting dollars and also to protect 222 00:20:21,17 --> 00:20:26,18 them. Of the other fun thing to learn is that we have American philanthropist 223 00:20:26,19 --> 00:20:31,03 inclosing clued in the local who are helping keep him together Paul Allen is the 224 00:20:31,04 --> 00:20:37,55 not so anonymous donor to the park that I visited right here in Zambia Greg 225 00:20:37,56 --> 00:20:43,74 Carr another internet millionaire is single handedly reviving 226 00:20:43,75 --> 00:20:50,74 a park in Mozambique so that wilderness is becoming so 227 00:20:50,75 --> 00:20:55,36 rare that philanthropist are now trying to around the world to figure out how to 228 00:20:55,37 --> 00:20:59,35 protect wilderness and whenever they have that plan the first thing on their item 229 00:20:59,36 --> 00:21:05,84 is how do we get rich tourists to come and spend their money there and then if you 230 00:21:05,85 --> 00:21:06,67 listen to N.P.R. 231 00:21:06,68 --> 00:21:13,60 You've heard last few days the series. Just today 232 00:21:14,24 --> 00:21:14,62 they had 233 00:21:14,63 --> 00:21:21,41 a spot where they talked about Kenya burning all the tusks. Richard 234 00:21:21,42 --> 00:21:27,54 Leakey is the man behind that who you meet in my book too and. Tourism is actually 235 00:21:27,55 --> 00:21:31,65 helping save the elephant. They have. 236 00:21:34,29 --> 00:21:39,73 Rhinoceros is in much worse shape than the elephants but without tourism they 237 00:21:39,74 --> 00:21:44,54 figured they would not have any more elephants so there there is very much 238 00:21:44,55 --> 00:21:50,91 a double edged sword here about. Good and bad and. 239 00:21:52,06 --> 00:21:58,80 Have how many people been to China as tourists. This is the giant It's 240 00:21:58,81 --> 00:22:05,29 amazing. When done shopping 241 00:22:05,35 --> 00:22:11,38 first rusted power in late seventy nine early eighty late seventy eight early 242 00:22:11,39 --> 00:22:13,65 seventy nine he gave 243 00:22:13,66 --> 00:22:17,11 a series of speeches of course that I'd never heard of until I had to do the 244 00:22:17,12 --> 00:22:22,34 research on tourism and the importance of tourism not only for the economy for the 245 00:22:22,45 --> 00:22:29,38 but for the political personality of China and he was convinced that if China 246 00:22:29,39 --> 00:22:29,94 developed 247 00:22:29,95 --> 00:22:33,89 a good tourism that would bring all the Westerners in the you could change their 248 00:22:33,90 --> 00:22:40,89 impression of what China was and it worked I when I was in China I corralled some. 249 00:22:44,09 --> 00:22:51,04 Americans who had never been to. China before and. They 250 00:22:52,52 --> 00:22:56,90 they they lived in the Washington area they took the New York Times every day the 251 00:22:56,91 --> 00:23:00,33 Washington Post they thought they were very very well educated and they were 252 00:23:00,34 --> 00:23:03,02 shocked at what they found and let me just read 253 00:23:03,03 --> 00:23:09,61 a couple of things they said Oh they're all medical doctors to. What surprised them 254 00:23:09,69 --> 00:23:11,90 the size of the buildings the way people dress is on 255 00:23:11,91 --> 00:23:16,28 a believable so was the house of the commerce the airport when it was like when we 256 00:23:16,29 --> 00:23:22,93 landed it was like being anyplace in the US only not as crowded. We can't believe 257 00:23:22,94 --> 00:23:25,87 how modern this country and we haven't seen any place I thought this was 258 00:23:25,88 --> 00:23:32,44 a police state. I thought the people would be solemn and dreary they aren't and 259 00:23:32,45 --> 00:23:38,98 that's another side of tourism tourism is like public diplomacy if it's 260 00:23:38,100 --> 00:23:42,23 very. It's very hard to find 261 00:23:42,24 --> 00:23:45,50 a tourist who's been to the United States and has him fall in love with something 262 00:23:45,51 --> 00:23:49,07 of us I mean it is so such 263 00:23:49,08 --> 00:23:54,87 a good investment when you have good tourism it is amazing. And the Chinese figured 264 00:23:54,88 --> 00:23:59,98 that too and the first thing that they did after figuring out they wanted to do 265 00:24:00,61 --> 00:24:06,81 tourism was to teach their own people how to be tourists they like the French they 266 00:24:06,82 --> 00:24:12,88 instituted paid vacations they're called golden weeks and now Chinese spend hundred 267 00:24:12,89 --> 00:24:17,81 twenty three billion in their own country every year as tourists. So it helps the 268 00:24:17,82 --> 00:24:24,53 economy. We talked about 269 00:24:24,54 --> 00:24:29,40 elephants and tourism saving elephants but tourism to save the panda and I wrote 270 00:24:29,41 --> 00:24:33,10 down panda in the death penalty because one of the ways to make sure that pandas 271 00:24:33,11 --> 00:24:37,01 aren't killed for their for the way they're used to as elephants and rhinos are 272 00:24:37,02 --> 00:24:41,97 killed for their horns is that the Chinese told me that the best way to do that is 273 00:24:41,98 --> 00:24:46,82 just you kill anybody you catch. It's not something you all are going to. 274 00:24:50,45 --> 00:24:57,38 Do. And to round it out my now my hometown Washington D.C. 275 00:24:58,36 --> 00:25:03,10 Like so many other things the United States is the exception to the rule on tourism 276 00:25:04,19 --> 00:25:09,36 I talked about governments and the good governments of the. United States has 277 00:25:09,37 --> 00:25:12,65 decided that the government has nothing to do with tourism which is 278 00:25:12,83 --> 00:25:18,70 a real trick because the product of Tourism is the country and it's very hard to 279 00:25:18,71 --> 00:25:22,97 keep the government out but it became tourism was one of the first casualties of 280 00:25:23,18 --> 00:25:30,03 what we now know as are. Completely. Bollixed up government 281 00:25:30,93 --> 00:25:36,11 in one thousand nine hundred four when the Republicans first one control of the 282 00:25:36,12 --> 00:25:39,11 house under News Gingrich they made 283 00:25:39,77 --> 00:25:44,25 a provision of their contract America to get rid of the government interest them so 284 00:25:44,26 --> 00:25:48,27 the truism agency that we had within the commerce department was their budget was 285 00:25:48,28 --> 00:25:53,44 zeroed out and all the embassies around the world American embassies were told they 286 00:25:53,45 --> 00:25:58,51 could no longer help those there foreigners learn how to come to the United States 287 00:26:00,54 --> 00:26:07,30 so in the decade winter ism took off that would be from ninety five onwards 288 00:26:08,89 --> 00:26:15,07 the United States was flat. You know the reason tourism took off was because of 289 00:26:15,08 --> 00:26:19,41 several things one was the end of the Cold War which opened up path of the world 290 00:26:19,66 --> 00:26:26,41 that makes sense the revolution in transportation we all know that from Boeing all 291 00:26:26,42 --> 00:26:32,80 a sudden now planes can go halfway across the globe in nonstop service you hear 292 00:26:32,81 --> 00:26:39,49 that every day on the amorality it's airline company and you had the Internet 293 00:26:39,50 --> 00:26:43,49 revolution so you had everything was perfect along with the growth of the middle 294 00:26:43,50 --> 00:26:47,56 class well the United States none of this and so. 295 00:26:50,18 --> 00:26:56,97 Government is out of tourism and then we had of course the attacks of nine eleven I 296 00:26:56,98 --> 00:27:00,80 was in the New York Times Washington bureau when that happened and of course I can 297 00:27:00,81 --> 00:27:02,90 tell you tourism which never came up 298 00:27:02,91 --> 00:27:07,03 a single news meaning we didn't even think about it was all national security 299 00:27:07,04 --> 00:27:13,52 homeland security. And about I think it's about five or six years in the 300 00:27:13,53 --> 00:27:14,67 tourism industry all of 301 00:27:14,68 --> 00:27:20,39 a sudden raised his hand and said. You may be overdoing it because. 302 00:27:22,46 --> 00:27:28,89 Fingerprinting rectal examination. The. 303 00:27:30,41 --> 00:27:37,37 Profiling so that they had they kept statistics and and as well as 304 00:27:37,39 --> 00:27:39,53 testimonials which was easy to find if you read 305 00:27:39,55 --> 00:27:44,98 a four newspaper Europeans the people you want to have come to your country rich 306 00:27:45,03 --> 00:27:48,79 Europeans and Asians and rich South Americans and British actors they were not 307 00:27:48,80 --> 00:27:52,91 coming they were not coming at all they were going every place but the United 308 00:27:52,93 --> 00:27:55,73 States and they were telling the United States why they were coming they were tired 309 00:27:55,84 --> 00:28:02,81 of being humiliated and harassed and so on and so forth and so. Most at least 310 00:28:02,82 --> 00:28:04,89 half of the tourists and this is 311 00:28:04,90 --> 00:28:08,100 a flat lining as the rest of the world is going up or day trippers from either 312 00:28:09,04 --> 00:28:15,15 Canada or Mexico which you would know that so that. In one thousand nine hundred 313 00:28:15,16 --> 00:28:20,41 ninety five when essentially the whole world opened up at the end of the Cold War 314 00:28:20,45 --> 00:28:25,97 five hundred million foreign troops were made every year last year it hit one 315 00:28:25,98 --> 00:28:29,21 billion so in a world of just 316 00:28:29,22 --> 00:28:32,61 a little over seven billion people we have one billion trips every year and the 317 00:28:32,62 --> 00:28:39,46 United States wasn't taking advantage of this as there's all kinds of 318 00:28:39,47 --> 00:28:42,66 examples of this and I will laugh at least in 319 00:28:42,67 --> 00:28:48,06 a way so what finally finally did it was the election of Barack Obama in 320 00:28:48,07 --> 00:28:54,62 a funny way. Remember he's the senator from Illinois the first year he's president 321 00:28:54,63 --> 00:29:00,55 went to Copenhagen to argue that Chicago should be the site of the night. 322 00:29:01,90 --> 00:29:08,01 Two thousand and sixteen Summer Olympics and it was one of the finalists. He was 323 00:29:08,02 --> 00:29:10,67 treated like royalty in Europe finally 324 00:29:10,68 --> 00:29:17,23 a handsome young we love Him we love Michelle and he thought he had in the bag then 325 00:29:17,24 --> 00:29:23,55 he goes and makes his case to the Olympic Committee and he was told No way are we 326 00:29:23,56 --> 00:29:28,36 going to subject our athletes and our populations to what you put your people 327 00:29:28,37 --> 00:29:33,90 through at the border. This is not what he was doing he was prepared to talk about 328 00:29:33,91 --> 00:29:38,38 how Chicago is going to make these great stadiums and he was not did not think 329 00:29:38,39 --> 00:29:43,74 you'd have to defend border policies and finally one of the few people who came out 330 00:29:43,75 --> 00:29:49,10 publicly to talk about it was the member of the community named Sage Shahid 331 00:29:49,14 --> 00:29:54,66 a leave from Pakistan and he said publicly that it would be too hard for the 332 00:29:54,91 --> 00:29:57,97 athletes and the most of the people entering the United States that it would be 333 00:29:57,98 --> 00:30:03,50 a rather harrowing experience and they could not do it President Obama got the 334 00:30:03,51 --> 00:30:10,14 message and over the last few years it's not been the top burner issue you have 335 00:30:10,15 --> 00:30:13,73 never read about it in this paper but he's slowly but surely starting to change it 336 00:30:13,74 --> 00:30:20,19 he's set up for the very first time with Finally cooperation from Congress the 337 00:30:20,20 --> 00:30:23,37 first web site for the U.S. 338 00:30:23,86 --> 00:30:29,59 Government to have if you can imagine in this day and age where you go on the 339 00:30:29,73 --> 00:30:34,64 website for any country and you find every language available on how to get around 340 00:30:34,65 --> 00:30:37,47 here and what are you what you want to do if you want to go hiking the United 341 00:30:37,48 --> 00:30:41,98 States and know so if you're from Portugal and you don't know the name of our track 342 00:30:42,36 --> 00:30:45,43 and you don't speak English you're in trouble so they finally have 343 00:30:45,44 --> 00:30:52,22 a it's called Discover USA and it's rather. Simple. But they 344 00:30:52,23 --> 00:30:53,67 finally have that they finally have 345 00:30:53,68 --> 00:30:59,52 a transportation idea so and so forth but most importantly they're changed abuse 346 00:30:59,53 --> 00:31:05,08 apologises so that. Well to Chinese and wealthy Brazilians have an easier time to 347 00:31:05,09 --> 00:31:05,22 get 348 00:31:05,23 --> 00:31:11,06 a visa they have more consulates every one of those people who come is the equivalent 349 00:31:11,07 --> 00:31:11,13 of 350 00:31:11,14 --> 00:31:18,73 a six thousand person stimulus package as the president put it. And starting 351 00:31:18,74 --> 00:31:25,19 to see how can you take advantage of it and and you know everybody wants to become 352 00:31:25,20 --> 00:31:30,96 the next France and so the book is trying to say this is 353 00:31:31,00 --> 00:31:36,91 a very important industry it is on its way to becoming the biggest global sector in 354 00:31:36,92 --> 00:31:42,13 the in the world and especially here in the United States has to be taken seriously 355 00:31:42,44 --> 00:31:43,17 the government has 356 00:31:43,18 --> 00:31:47,37 a huge role in that whether it wants to admit it or not and if you don't admit it 357 00:31:47,38 --> 00:31:48,16 it's probably going to be 358 00:31:48,17 --> 00:31:53,74 a negative role and there can be good sides as well as bad sides and to look for 359 00:31:53,75 --> 00:31:59,89 the good sides and so I always end with the happy tourist in Costa Rica. Thank you 360 00:31:59,89 --> 00:31:59,89 . 361 00:32:01,23 --> 00:32:07,72 Thank you 362 00:32:07,95 --> 00:32:14,50 so discussion question. For why the ball. 363 00:32:18,35 --> 00:32:25,24 Well there there's one other piece of political. History 364 00:32:25,25 --> 00:32:30,75 that is also part of this is that because of states' rights every state has its 365 00:32:30,76 --> 00:32:36,70 truism agency so you have this built in suspicion of 366 00:32:36,82 --> 00:32:43,62 a federal role. For instance when when I would go to different for 367 00:32:43,63 --> 00:32:50,18 this I went to all these tourism fairs where you had beautiful boosts from Nepal 368 00:32:50,51 --> 00:32:54,51 from India from Spain and then you'd have 369 00:32:54,52 --> 00:33:00,25 a string of motley twenty different states with their little somethings and so it 370 00:33:00,26 --> 00:33:02,89 would it's very hard. For 371 00:33:02,90 --> 00:33:08,27 a foreigner to say do I want to go canoeing in Delaware or where's Montana and at 372 00:33:08,28 --> 00:33:13,71 the same time not wanting to give up control over their tourism so you have that 373 00:33:14,00 --> 00:33:18,94 that political fight that's been going since the Constitution was written and then 374 00:33:18,95 --> 00:33:25,36 on top of it you know government that has been the Creed government out of X. Y. 375 00:33:25,37 --> 00:33:25,91 And Z. 376 00:33:25,92 --> 00:33:30,67 That the invisible hand of the free market etc etc Which of course you know that's 377 00:33:30,92 --> 00:33:34,02 that's an exaggeration but. I quote 378 00:33:34,50 --> 00:33:41,35 a Republican ambassador Ambassador Connemara who was the ambassador 379 00:33:41,36 --> 00:33:46,91 to the O.E.C.D. In Paris during the Iraq war and what she was sent there she was 380 00:33:46,92 --> 00:33:51,77 a former member of Congress and the ambassadorship was her reward for good work. 381 00:33:52,93 --> 00:33:58,17 She was preparing for defending her country in the teeth of the Iraq war and 382 00:33:58,18 --> 00:34:03,93 process the protests and she said to her surprise the main problem she had was 383 00:34:03,94 --> 00:34:09,77 tourism that the rest of the developed world understood the importance of tourism 384 00:34:09,78 --> 00:34:16,06 that you had to do research you had to do. Real serious thinking about it and so 385 00:34:16,07 --> 00:34:16,72 whenever 386 00:34:17,40 --> 00:34:23,77 a budget had to be approved from Washington they'd say take us out so 387 00:34:23,89 --> 00:34:30,76 it's an idiology and it's always hard to totally describe idiology but it is very 388 00:34:30,80 --> 00:34:35,12 firmly held. And I don't think it's going to last because 389 00:34:35,13 --> 00:34:38,44 a lot of the industry is Republican but I don't know. 390 00:34:42,24 --> 00:34:48,52 Yes OK. That's true. You're. 391 00:34:56,17 --> 00:35:02,83 Right. The industry is called Thank You for the questions it's. It's called travel 392 00:35:02,84 --> 00:35:07,80 and tourism because the industry itself says it's very hard to sort through this 393 00:35:07,84 --> 00:35:08,82 the motivation 394 00:35:09,84 --> 00:35:16,51 a lot of business travel is not. But. The 395 00:35:16,52 --> 00:35:21,32 easiest way to describe it would be something called mice meetings incentives 396 00:35:21,33 --> 00:35:26,77 conventions and events and that's the way that the industry divides it and. It's 397 00:35:26,78 --> 00:35:32,25 becoming one of the most important sectors of the economy that. 398 00:35:33,70 --> 00:35:37,82 I'll say something like thirty percent but that might be 399 00:35:37,83 --> 00:35:44,75 a little generous. To show you how important was when when China opened Macau 400 00:35:44,76 --> 00:35:50,88 up for gambling. Halfway around the world in Las Vegas they lost 401 00:35:51,04 --> 00:35:56,15 a lot of money in the high rollers in the high but wagers all went to Macau Las 402 00:35:56,17 --> 00:35:59,71 Vegas had to say what are we going to do they still have gambling obviously but 403 00:35:59,72 --> 00:36:06,26 it's not the core moneymaker and it's conventions and they have there that they 404 00:36:06,78 --> 00:36:12,88 routinely top the most visited most biggest tourist spot in America still but 405 00:36:12,89 --> 00:36:19,15 that's on the basis of the conventions. Convention travel. Europe Germany in 406 00:36:19,16 --> 00:36:25,14 particular is using business conventions and things like that to to win over and 407 00:36:25,15 --> 00:36:25,91 they're discovering 408 00:36:25,92 --> 00:36:30,86 a lot of people that's their that's their that's their tourism they go to 409 00:36:30,87 --> 00:36:35,45 a convention and then they take the added trip there in Rome and they might as well 410 00:36:35,46 --> 00:36:41,04 go down to Naples sort of thing so it's an important sector and. 411 00:36:42,29 --> 00:36:47,41 Another thing that sort of brings this out as medical tourism you all have it you 412 00:36:47,42 --> 00:36:53,56 don't all know about it's becoming it's not just Canada and Mexico anymore although 413 00:36:53,57 --> 00:37:00,20 it is important. Countries in Africa Europe and Asia are getting 414 00:37:00,21 --> 00:37:07,13 a lot of Americans by you twin packages Ministry of Health 415 00:37:07,36 --> 00:37:14,34 and Ministry of Tourism will offer you an operation in Kuala Lumpur and rest 416 00:37:14,35 --> 00:37:16,88 and recuperation at the local beach for 417 00:37:16,89 --> 00:37:21,85 a price that's one tenth of what you would have had been the United States and 418 00:37:21,86 --> 00:37:27,71 enough Americans even with Obamacare are are not going to be able to afford some of 419 00:37:27,72 --> 00:37:31,84 the health care they need that they continue to do it and so that's an is that 420 00:37:32,81 --> 00:37:37,30 tourism do we think of that is tourism but everything is being packaged that way so 421 00:37:37,65 --> 00:37:37,85 it's 422 00:37:37,86 --> 00:37:49,86 a very important the business side is becoming very important yes. So 423 00:37:49,86 --> 00:37:53,62 . Why are. There. 424 00:38:05,82 --> 00:38:09,71 Yeah. This was not written as 425 00:38:09,72 --> 00:38:13,66 a consumer book it was written as industry but I hope that when you read it you 426 00:38:14,01 --> 00:38:20,24 comes to a couple of conclusions I try not to force feed but. What I found is that 427 00:38:20,28 --> 00:38:23,82 a lot of us are very lazy when we prepare 428 00:38:23,83 --> 00:38:29,00 a trip and if you just did your homework you be three fourths of the way there and 429 00:38:29,01 --> 00:38:34,81 it's not that hard there are lots of sites if you're worried about your footprint I 430 00:38:34,91 --> 00:38:41,76 didn't mention Dubai in the Middle East which is. The worst 431 00:38:41,77 --> 00:38:47,43 footprint ever and so if you just there are there are there are websites and it's 432 00:38:47,44 --> 00:38:53,03 all through here. How you can see where the footprints is footprints are on. 433 00:38:54,52 --> 00:38:56,74 Air conditioning if you go to 434 00:38:56,76 --> 00:39:00,74 a place where you're going to be skiing in the middle of the desert or ice skating 435 00:39:00,79 --> 00:39:06,11 you know that that's wrong when. I'm serious and. 436 00:39:07,18 --> 00:39:12,81 There's so in consumer tends to be the consumer tourism destinations can tend to be 437 00:39:12,82 --> 00:39:17,77 the most. When I'm you'll see here I rely a lot on the National Geographic it's 438 00:39:17,78 --> 00:39:24,40 a great website and there are. There are numbers and numbers 439 00:39:24,41 --> 00:39:27,36 it's just so easy I could mention crest there's 440 00:39:27,37 --> 00:39:33,59 a mention sustainable travel grading where you can grade I grade one of my trips to 441 00:39:33,60 --> 00:39:39,23 Costa Rica trip I show you how to grade it so is how the locals are they showing 442 00:39:39,24 --> 00:39:44,50 you the trip like these are local codes so you can biologists and botanists who 443 00:39:44,51 --> 00:39:46,23 were leading the trip it wasn't 444 00:39:46,24 --> 00:39:52,84 a foreigner. Are you buying local. Are some souvenirs 445 00:39:53,27 --> 00:40:00,27 is the food local. And you'll find all of these charts in the book I show you 446 00:40:00,61 --> 00:40:03,38 I do it so it shows about I'm I'm I'm not 447 00:40:03,39 --> 00:40:08,10 a consumer but you'll see that and and then pretty soon you'll see and you'll be 448 00:40:08,11 --> 00:40:13,28 able to recognize the companies that are peeling to you as well but the U.N. 449 00:40:13,29 --> 00:40:19,75 Has website says there's lots of wonderful websites and also. 450 00:40:21,34 --> 00:40:26,21 Go where you know someone. And it doesn't hurt to go where you speak 451 00:40:26,22 --> 00:40:31,94 a language. I say that to American crowds Yes. 452 00:40:35,68 --> 00:40:41,06 Resort Cruise part of. The route very or is 453 00:40:41,07 --> 00:40:47,99 a. Result. Of what's going 454 00:40:48,00 --> 00:40:53,82 on. Just so. Resorts and cruises that even though. 455 00:40:56,16 --> 00:41:02,26 There are small ones there are small ones and. You can find those and 456 00:41:02,98 --> 00:41:06,79 do they always win the top awards because they're fighting such 457 00:41:06,80 --> 00:41:13,59 a long odds. The one of the reasons is the cruise industry not being 458 00:41:13,60 --> 00:41:20,36 a dead horse here but. It's just become so industrialized that they practically 459 00:41:20,40 --> 00:41:25,39 own the ports so that when you get off the ship you have to go through diamonds 460 00:41:25,40 --> 00:41:30,54 internationals and I have you'll see I tried to figure out just how close they are 461 00:41:30,66 --> 00:41:36,18 there is that there's a business relationship but it's hidden. They're 462 00:41:36,19 --> 00:41:41,15 a dime in that and they only started in the last twenty years but all of 463 00:41:41,16 --> 00:41:44,74 a sudden diamond International's everywhere they're up in Alaska where the cruise 464 00:41:44,75 --> 00:41:50,98 ships are so they're there are. It's just part and parcel and different 465 00:41:51,55 --> 00:41:54,93 Caribbean countries are trying to figure out how to get out of it they create 466 00:41:54,94 --> 00:42:00,23 something called sacrifice owns where you like in Billy's the let the tourists from 467 00:42:00,28 --> 00:42:01,71 cruise ships go to one part of 468 00:42:01,72 --> 00:42:06,78 a park because they know it'll be trashed and then they keep them out of the US and 469 00:42:06,92 --> 00:42:12,56 the in the cruise one of the cruise I interview a cruise C.E.O. 470 00:42:12,95 --> 00:42:14,50 And he said the best thing for 471 00:42:14,51 --> 00:42:20,00 a cruise tourist in fact are to go to made up spots remember during the Haiti 472 00:42:20,01 --> 00:42:26,59 earthquake Royal Caribbean was shamed into. Making contributions but that's because 473 00:42:26,60 --> 00:42:32,36 they went to an island that cruise passengers didn't even know it was Haiti and it 474 00:42:32,37 --> 00:42:37,56 was all fabricated and that's really good for a cruise passenger because it is 475 00:42:37,57 --> 00:42:42,71 a consumer. They're not looking for Haitians they're looking for 476 00:42:42,73 --> 00:42:45,59 a beach and they're looking for a cool lunch in 477 00:42:45,60 --> 00:42:52,05 a nice drink and hanging out and and maybe that I mean that may be the answer but 478 00:42:52,06 --> 00:42:57,39 they're dealing with it and there are some resources that are conscientious seventy 479 00:42:57,59 --> 00:42:58,08 five cents 480 00:42:58,09 --> 00:43:05,03 a seven cents is. That some of the most expensive ones are the ones who who don't 481 00:43:05,03 --> 00:43:10,77 have air conditioning who have old fashioned fans that have. The old stuff and they 482 00:43:10,78 --> 00:43:11,12 cost 483 00:43:11,13 --> 00:43:18,35 a lot more money. I hope that helps. How 484 00:43:18,36 --> 00:43:25,21 do you rate his right. To tell you what you think of the carbon 485 00:43:25,44 --> 00:43:27,67 offset. By saying. 486 00:43:32,48 --> 00:43:33,40 I have 487 00:43:33,41 --> 00:43:40,14 a renewed respect for travel agents after this I. It's hard to figure 488 00:43:40,15 --> 00:43:45,28 stuff out it's hard to you don't know the geography you don't know what's available 489 00:43:45,72 --> 00:43:49,56 and again that's part of the homework is that you need an expert in most things you 490 00:43:49,57 --> 00:43:55,09 need experts to help you and so I. I now have a my husband I have 491 00:43:55,10 --> 00:43:59,46 a travel agent because we just now respect I'm much more they can help me and they 492 00:43:59,47 --> 00:44:03,06 know you're looking for something that cycle wise and then so I am 493 00:44:03,07 --> 00:44:06,79 a big fan of them and they're slightly coming back offsets. 494 00:44:10,64 --> 00:44:16,30 Yes why not. The most impressive or the ones that the industry themselves do like 495 00:44:16,52 --> 00:44:19,71 Mary yacht hotels is underwriting 496 00:44:19,72 --> 00:44:26,47 a two million acre. Rainforest in Brazil that's And so I mean 497 00:44:27,14 --> 00:44:32,40 and if you tell the industry you're you're you're on this trip because I know you 498 00:44:32,41 --> 00:44:38,66 do these these offsets that that helps to. A lot of travelers just planted you know 499 00:44:38,67 --> 00:44:43,43 there's all these trees you can plant in Ireland and. I think it helps but I think 500 00:44:43,50 --> 00:44:46,66 but I also think what really helps is not to have that big of 501 00:44:46,70 --> 00:44:52,92 a footprint in the first place and there are ways to get around that. You know my 502 00:44:52,93 --> 00:44:59,89 question relates to that if you were the. Travel and Tourism what would be your 503 00:44:59,90 --> 00:45:06,77 and again. Well I don't I can't I say here I 504 00:45:06,78 --> 00:45:13,07 can't answer that question. I think people make too many mindless trips way too 505 00:45:13,08 --> 00:45:16,56 many mindless trips I don't think they stay long enough to even know where they are 506 00:45:16,56 --> 00:45:21,93 . I would suggest fewer trips but stay longer. 507 00:45:24,83 --> 00:45:28,07 To remember why you travel in the first place if it's just 508 00:45:28,08 --> 00:45:35,06 a change of pace you can you know drive to Portland you don't have. To fly you know 509 00:45:35,10 --> 00:45:40,64 halfway across the world. And. I would. 510 00:45:42,79 --> 00:45:47,36 And I would say you know be conscientious as 511 00:45:47,37 --> 00:45:52,35 a tourist but also be conscientious as the citizen so that be careful about what 512 00:45:52,36 --> 00:45:56,33 you're allowing in your own place one of the things I found is that nobody's 513 00:45:56,34 --> 00:45:59,40 mentioned volunteer tourism which is something that 514 00:45:59,41 --> 00:46:02,94 a lot of younger people want to do and retired people that seem to be it's just. 515 00:46:04,13 --> 00:46:08,70 It's funny what the tourists who are volunteer tourist the best are the ones who do 516 00:46:08,71 --> 00:46:12,77 volunteering in their hometown then they're good when they go over the ones who 517 00:46:12,78 --> 00:46:19,70 don't do any volunteering or useless. And it's the same when. If 518 00:46:19,71 --> 00:46:23,01 you get the better you know your home community and your home country and your home 519 00:46:23,02 --> 00:46:26,76 culture the more you're going to get out of another one I mean if if you've never 520 00:46:26,77 --> 00:46:27,11 been to 521 00:46:27,12 --> 00:46:34,09 a church and you go to not. What's going on here so it's that's 522 00:46:34,10 --> 00:46:39,25 sort of that's what my eyes are would do say you know. Get to know your own 523 00:46:39,26 --> 00:46:44,74 community before you go. Yeah dig deep much deeper and try. 524 00:46:46,41 --> 00:46:48,78 One of the funniest parts was I live just 525 00:46:48,79 --> 00:46:53,40 a few blocks from the Library of Congress I'm very lucky and I would just go and 526 00:46:53,41 --> 00:46:57,70 read the old Baedekers you know the old guides what they did before 527 00:46:57,71 --> 00:47:04,60 a trip is unbelievable. These guides were written by the best scholars of the day 528 00:47:05,36 --> 00:47:10,19 and you had you had to memorize language and you had to know history and at the 529 00:47:10,20 --> 00:47:14,95 very end the last two or three pages of a one hundred fifty page book it's 530 00:47:14,96 --> 00:47:18,06 a oh by the way you might want to stay at this hotel that you know it's the 531 00:47:18,07 --> 00:47:23,97 consumer part was irrelevant the whole point was to know this other culture and and 532 00:47:24,01 --> 00:47:30,18 I mean serious history not three paragraphs and Lonely Planet so. 533 00:47:34,12 --> 00:47:41,09 Oh yes. For. 534 00:47:43,93 --> 00:47:44,23 Us. 535 00:48:02,62 --> 00:48:05,74 To. Thank us for asking such 536 00:48:05,76 --> 00:48:12,61 a difficult but. Spain is one of 537 00:48:12,62 --> 00:48:17,74 those weirdos. It has had 538 00:48:17,75 --> 00:48:22,62 a rather rather good governments and the tourism has been hideous they ruin the 539 00:48:22,63 --> 00:48:29,44 coast. Neighboring Portugal lead the way of you 540 00:48:29,45 --> 00:48:36,28 know recovering the monasteries and convents. And why I 541 00:48:36,29 --> 00:48:37,34 don't know it's a it was 542 00:48:37,35 --> 00:48:41,29 a very strong culture I mean they would hearken back to the days of Franco and 543 00:48:41,30 --> 00:48:47,78 things like that but. Spain would probably be the best 544 00:48:47,79 --> 00:48:52,92 example after Franco they had great government and the tourism didn't work very 545 00:48:52,93 --> 00:48:57,32 well however that reminds me the UN actually has 546 00:48:57,33 --> 00:49:03,01 a very good resource on all these issues on. How governance works in terms of 547 00:49:03,02 --> 00:49:06,60 tourism and through something called the UN World Tourism Organization which you've 548 00:49:06,61 --> 00:49:13,18 never heard of it's it is in Madrid and it's the only underfunded U.N. 549 00:49:13,19 --> 00:49:17,46 Agency I've ever seen where they actually do good work and they don't have enough 550 00:49:17,47 --> 00:49:18,57 money but all of 551 00:49:19,17 --> 00:49:25,21 a good deal the studies that I cite on tourism what works what doesn't is from the 552 00:49:25,22 --> 00:49:25,46 U.N. 553 00:49:25,47 --> 00:49:32,59 W to you oh yes just 554 00:49:32,59 --> 00:49:32,59 . 555 00:49:40,64 --> 00:49:45,99 Australia truism over took sheep about twenty years ago. 556 00:49:48,48 --> 00:49:52,30 I mentioned Australia because. It is 557 00:49:52,34 --> 00:49:58,31 a model it's called you know Australia and New Zealand are both models for for 558 00:49:58,57 --> 00:50:03,09 environmentally correct and when the Chinese had learned how to be tourists in 559 00:50:03,10 --> 00:50:06,76 their own countries the first countries that they were the only countries they're 560 00:50:06,77 --> 00:50:13,26 allowed to go to at the beginning were Australia New Zealand because it's wide open 561 00:50:13,38 --> 00:50:15,80 and good blah blah blah they made 562 00:50:15,81 --> 00:50:21,27 a mess of it at first and New Zealand New Zealand and Australia had to sort of 563 00:50:21,28 --> 00:50:25,27 teach the Chinese operators how you do it so and so forth but you know it's 564 00:50:25,28 --> 00:50:27,01 a high standard there's no question it's 565 00:50:27,02 --> 00:50:33,54 a high standard and. The New Zealand the they all have these little models 566 00:50:33,74 --> 00:50:37,52 but pure New Zealand really was one of the path breakers. 567 00:50:41,87 --> 00:50:48,80 You. Broke your leg. You 568 00:50:48,81 --> 00:50:55,71 know. I think so. You know like 569 00:50:55,94 --> 00:51:02,20 Yeah well like. About that here we. 570 00:51:05,60 --> 00:51:10,29 Go in. There just as easy as getting rid of fast food. 571 00:51:13,02 --> 00:51:19,72 It's it is too seductive. And it's all over it's not just remember 572 00:51:19,73 --> 00:51:24,58 think the Americans are the bad people I mean it's all over I was. Is I'm 573 00:51:24,59 --> 00:51:31,54 a and why are they taking all those photographs. It would 574 00:51:31,55 --> 00:51:36,50 be nice to see some tourists that are just walking without it's constant was oh 575 00:51:36,54 --> 00:51:42,93 who's going to see all those photographs. You 576 00:51:43,26 --> 00:51:49,58 know. It's getting mediocre grades. That 577 00:51:49,84 --> 00:51:55,77 they're having to. Reconsider and some there's been some real pressure on. 578 00:51:56,79 --> 00:52:01,18 I think they've pulled back I personally didn't visit it but I know it's in trouble 579 00:52:01,18 --> 00:52:07,46 . They're pushing back on the number of tourists who can go and 580 00:52:08,15 --> 00:52:13,77 they are pushing back on ships for cruise ships I just beat up on them too much. 581 00:52:15,71 --> 00:52:22,10 And and it's going all the way down to Antarctica where. Certain 582 00:52:22,62 --> 00:52:26,97 size of cruise ships are not completely forbidden because of fear of accidents that 583 00:52:26,98 --> 00:52:32,28 would be catastrophic fragile to the fragile so it's got 584 00:52:32,29 --> 00:52:37,90 a goes it's not they have to reconsider it. Yes. 585 00:52:53,52 --> 00:52:58,62 Well countries do lots of studies about this because they want the good tourists 586 00:52:59,31 --> 00:53:04,01 and now despite people my age you might be surprised at this the Japanese are among 587 00:53:04,02 --> 00:53:10,22 the best to us they appreciate culture they spend wisely and discreetly. 588 00:53:11,51 --> 00:53:17,84 And they respect where they are. I was surprised at how happy people were to see 589 00:53:17,85 --> 00:53:22,63 Americans it's nice to see Americans because we don't travel as much as we used to 590 00:53:22,63 --> 00:53:26,44 . You know and the percentage wise we have 591 00:53:26,45 --> 00:53:33,44 a very low percentage of people with passports. I keep seeing 592 00:53:33,45 --> 00:53:39,16 all the people who didn't. But countries. 593 00:53:41,07 --> 00:53:47,99 Like the European Union does serious studies of what tourists want and how to 594 00:53:48,99 --> 00:53:55,57 manipulate them to go in the right direction and so for instance. The Chinese 595 00:53:56,27 --> 00:54:00,20 do not necessarily like to visit art museums but they like to visit the home of 596 00:54:00,21 --> 00:54:05,20 artists that doesn't seem like 597 00:54:05,21 --> 00:54:11,09 a big distinction to you but it means that those countries will make sure that the 598 00:54:11,10 --> 00:54:16,62 artists home or the musicians Johann Sebastian Bach they're going to have 599 00:54:16,66 --> 00:54:20,08 a Chinese translator there and they're going to make sure that the bus stops over 600 00:54:20,09 --> 00:54:25,94 here and that there's Chinese you know it's so they accommodate but. 601 00:54:27,08 --> 00:54:33,56 The hype the hyper shoppers. Those are tough because they tend to 602 00:54:33,99 --> 00:54:37,18 be cheap on everything else and then complain. 603 00:54:40,72 --> 00:54:47,63 OK yes if you're. Very near 604 00:54:48,59 --> 00:54:55,15 zero if you want. Your local agent who knows you and 605 00:54:56,14 --> 00:54:56,64 you know have 606 00:54:56,65 --> 00:55:02,09 a friend you know say this is who I am and your local agent will be an American who 607 00:55:02,10 --> 00:55:08,11 will know who you are what you really want to do what your your budget is and help 608 00:55:08,12 --> 00:55:14,19 you figure it out. And the local agent will know who in that other country 609 00:55:14,20 --> 00:55:20,17 whichever country are going to visit say you're you're going to visit Brazil your 610 00:55:20,18 --> 00:55:24,85 local agent will know who to hook you up with in Brazil because they'll have 611 00:55:24,86 --> 00:55:28,52 a relationship with the travel agent in Brazil so that would be the way I would go 612 00:55:28,73 --> 00:55:34,27 definitely. True business but you know it's 613 00:55:34,28 --> 00:55:40,44 a constant theme about our national parks for instance. To me. 614 00:55:44,43 --> 00:55:50,27 And you know me. That's mostly domestic and I was talking about foreign and I'm 615 00:55:50,28 --> 00:55:55,74 sorry if I didn't make it clear we're It was the foreign explosion but domestic 616 00:55:55,75 --> 00:56:01,22 tourism when I'm talking about tourism I'm sorry I don't talk about people being 617 00:56:01,23 --> 00:56:05,23 tourists in their own country if we talked about peace people be interested in 618 00:56:05,24 --> 00:56:10,39 their own country it would probably three times the number of one billion but 619 00:56:10,40 --> 00:56:14,96 that's not it's we don't have the statistics to be able to say that. The National 620 00:56:14,97 --> 00:56:20,69 Parks. Are crowded in certain areas and empty in 621 00:56:20,73 --> 00:56:24,96 a lot of the other areas and that's one of the parks biggest problems is how do you 622 00:56:25,00 --> 00:56:30,81 direct people so that you have they have all these statistics that I didn't. I 623 00:56:30,82 --> 00:56:34,50 don't understand so I didn't put them in but they have formulas to figuring out how 624 00:56:34,51 --> 00:56:38,30 many people should be in which room which area and so and so forth and if they 625 00:56:38,31 --> 00:56:41,95 could figure that out they'd to be doing much better there's been much greater 626 00:56:41,96 --> 00:56:48,70 growth in the other kind of parks the in parks and those are skyrocketing and they 627 00:56:48,71 --> 00:56:53,14 know how to what to do with people they have seen Park weddings theme park thing 628 00:56:53,15 --> 00:56:58,73 but you know but actually the when you look at the two the national parks are not 629 00:56:58,78 --> 00:57:03,14 growing anywhere near the same parks and if they could figure out how it is so good 630 00:57:03,15 --> 00:57:07,38 I'm around it be well. To thank you. 631 00:57:17,12 --> 00:57:20,63 Oh OK.